


And Ignite Your Bones

by roseandheather



Category: Code Black (TV)
Genre: F/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-13
Updated: 2016-04-13
Packaged: 2018-06-02 01:56:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6545806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseandheather/pseuds/roseandheather
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As her boss, he knows without a doubt that she did everything she possibly could to save them.</p><p>But as her friend, he worries about the toll it's taken on her.</p><p>Ed and Leanne, and trust.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And Ignite Your Bones

**Author's Note:**

> If you guys haven't seen [this incredible Leanne video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Kzn97cW2Uo) (by our very own Malika, no less!), you need to fix that. It was a heavy inspiration for this fic, even if I poached the title from a more recognizable song.
> 
> "Calling All Angels", indeed.

With every patient she loses, the lines around her eyes get tighter.

He'd been silently lurking around the E.R., just getting a feel for the rhythm of the place - and, yes, perhaps taking Leanne's advice that he should get down here more often. The caliber of the residents surprises him; even Angus Leighton, who by all accounts had floundered early on, moves with a brisk assurance that heartens him to see. Savetti, Pineda, and Lorenson are all more than living up to the reports he'd heard of them, and the other Leighton - Angus' older brother, Mike - proves to have the true teacher's gift, in a way he hasn't seen since Leanne herself.

Then sirens start wailing on the ramps, and all Hell breaks loose.

A twelve-car pileup on the highway brings a flood of injured - critical, not-so-critical, and walking wounded - through their doors, and Leanne jumps into the fray without hesitation. She shucks her white coat, rolls up her sleeves, and plunges into the chaos, seemingly unshaken by the noise and crying.

He knows better, now. Knows _her_ better. And he worries.

"Dr. Harbert!" she barks, startling him half out of his shoes. "I think Dr. Lorenson would appreciate some assistance!"

He blinks rapidly. "Are you joking?"

Hot and challenging, her eyes meet his. "Are you a doctor, or aren't you?"

Unaccountably, despite the crush and the shouts and the sheer bedlam of it all, his throat clogs with gratitude.

"Yes, ma'am!" he calls back, and tosses his suit jacket aside.

"Run it down for me, Dr. Lorenson!"

To her enormous credit, Christa Lorenson doesn't even blink, let alone ask him what the hell he thinks he's doing. "Crush injuries to the chest and pelvis. He got crunched by an overenthusiastic airbag. I'm about to place a chest tube for the hemothorax...."

For the next three hours, all of his attention is on Christa and the job he's doing with her. But a part of his awareness - so small as to be almost invisible - is unshakably fixed on Leanne. It's more awareness than sight, or even sound; but a part of him can feel the increasing waves of grief rolling off her as the minutes wear on. She takes the most critical cases, always, and every time he hears her call out another time of death, his throat gets just a little bit tighter.

~*~

"That's the last of them," Christa says wearily, quite a long time later. "Thank you, Dr. Harbert. For everything."

"No," he says quietly, under the ongoing buzz of nurses and doctors and worried relatives. "Thank _you,_ Dr. Lorenson. You're a credit to this hospital."

She ducks her head and blushes, only looking up when Leanne walks by. "Christa, go take a break," she says hoarsely, and offers the blonde a smile. "You deserve a cup of coffee and ten minutes to sit down."

"I'd argue with you, but I'm too tired," says Christa with a weary laugh. "Thanks, Dr. Rorish." And with that she stumbles away, making a beeline for coffee and a sofa - the order thereof to depend on just how much energy she has when she gets there.

"You did good," says a voice at his elbow, and he startles to realize Leanne is still there.

Finally he gets a good look at her, and he doesn't like what he sees. At all.

She's splattered with blood; it's in her hair, on her cheek, even flecking her glasses. Her jaw is taut, like she's fighting something, and her eyes are glassy and red-rimmed. Slumped shoulders, white knuckles... no, he doesn't like this.

He doesn't like this at all.

"Leanne," he says, with a gentleness that surprises even him. "Come on. My office."

"I have to - "

"They've got it all under control," he interrupts her. "They don't need you right now."

"But - "

"That wasn't a _request,_ Dr. Rorish," he says, with just a touch of steel in his voice. He hates doing it, wishes he didn't have to play that card, but she's an explosion of grief waiting to happen, and he thinks she'd rather fall apart in private.

"Fine," she groans, and follows him upstairs in silence.

 _Red flag number twelve,_ he thinks, only half sarcastically.

"I didn't drag you up here as your boss," he tells her before she can even open her mouth. "As your boss, I am entirely confident that you did absolutely everything you could, and I would be even if I hadn't been down there while you were doing it."

She eyes him suspiciously, and he heaves a sigh. "But Leanne, as your _friend..._ you called time of death seven times in two hours. I've been where you are, even if it was back in the Dark Ages, and as your friend, I'm worried about you. I thought you might like a bit of privacy for awhile."

She stares at him for a long minute, her eyes filling with unshed tears, and then she slumps against the wall, hugs her knees to her chest, and starts to shake.

Tentatively he walks up to her and rests one hand on her shoulder, kneeling down beside her. She grabs it and clings as though she can't bear to let go, and without further ado, he seats himself on the floor and draws her into his arms. She locks her own around his neck, clinging to him like he's the only thing keeping her together, and he gently rubs her back, trying to say everything without words.

She breaks down crying then, shaking apart in his arms, and for quite some time, neither of them move.


End file.
